Archive for September, 2009
Posted by gps_units on
September 30, 2009
For several years we have been using a Garmin 630c for our driving directions. It’s a good system, though as an earlier generation device it doesn’t speak street names and its understanding of lanes is sometimes limited. On occasion it has gotten us lost.
The new Magellan we got from Vine is a more sleek design, with spoken street names and a number of other features, such as a lane-identifying function that kicks in when you are approaching an exit or a fork in the freeway. It also contains site/attraction information from the American Automobile Club.
We took this GPS on a trip from Atlanta to Kentucky to give it a road test, and it performed well, though not perfectly. The first thing we had to get used to was a slightly more mechanical female digital voice than we were used to from the Garmin. The directions were unremarkable, taking us for the most part on the well-trodden routes, except that in at least two cases the device gave the wrong side of the street upon reaching a destination. The lane-recognition feature worked well, eliminating confusion about what lane to be in, and the GPS was also useful in finding desired eating establishments along the route we were traveling. This latter took a bit of noodling through the menus, but it worked well.
We took it on the back roads to Kentucky Lake and it got us there and back to town flawlessly.
The attractions/restaurants/local features information was already somewhat outdated, but that’s to be expected. Updates are available for purchase through the Magellan website. A traffic module works somewhat differently from other brands, in that you access it by buying a $79 piece of hardware, with the service being free. Based on the reviews, we opted not to buy the traffic hardware.
One test for these devices is how they handle the situation when you go counter to their prescribed directions. The Garmin signals clearly when you go off the route that it is “recalculating,” but the Magellan, after a few moments of confusion, simply begins giving you new instructions. While the “recalculating” mantra can be annoying, the Magellan’s moments of indecision while getting its bearings are a bit disconcerting. It is careful, however, to advise you only to make a “legal” u-turn.
All in all, the Magellan 1440 is a capable device and service. The touch-screen works well, the graphics are bright and easy to see, and the mechanical lady kind of grows on you.
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Posted by gps_units on
September 29, 2009
I got this for my husband for our anniversary. It’s a really nifty little gadget …we both love it. It’s easy to use and gets us where we’re going.
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Posted by gps_units on
September 28, 2009
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Posted by gps_units on
September 27, 2009
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Posted by gps_units on
September 27, 2009
The Pharos Drive GPS 200 is an excellent VALUE. I’d refer anybody considering this unit to a Tom’s Guide review of “5 Stellar GPS Units Under $150″: http://www.tomsguide.com/us/GPS-navigation-cheap,review-1181-10.html . The Tom’s Guide review was written on December 22, 2008. I am definitely satisfied!
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Posted by gps_units on
September 25, 2009
Megellans “customer service” is by far the worst we have experienced. Based on our experience, it appears that Magellan’s customer service tactic is to put the customer on hold for long periods hoping that they will hang up, always making the customer call back, never agreeing to follow up with a return phone call or e-mail and making false promises. I’m assuming all with the intent that the customer will eventually just give up. Not only has Magellan not stood behind its product, its customer service people are obviously trained to give customers the run around. What a NASTY way to treat people. Read on if you want details of what we have been through.
In April of 2006 I bought my husband a Magellan Explorist 300 for his birthday. It was to replace a 10 year old Magellan that was much larger and heavier. After several months the NAV button wasn’t working properly. By the time he got around to call “customer service” it was a couple of weeks after the 1 year warranty. He was told the warranty would not be honored as it had expired. We paid to ship and repair the unit. When we got the unit back, it was not the one we sent in as it had a different serial number. The NAV button of this replaced unit did not work. My husband called within a week, of receiving this “repaired” model and was told by “customer service” that the Explorist 300 was discontinued, they would not honor the “repaired” model and that they were no longer servicing the model. He was then told he would just have to buy another model. He indicated that this was not acceptable and pressed to speak with a supervisor. He was first told no supervisor was available and with further pressing was put on hold for 10-15 minutes before a supervisor responded. She indicated that they would provide him with an Explorist 400 at no charge, but that they were out of stock and he would need to call back in a week. After the week, the call was a series of holds (always 10-15 minutes each time) before a supervisor came to the phone. This supervisor said the Explorist 400 was out of stock as well as the Explorist 500 and that they would ship him an Explorist 600. After two weeks went by, my husband called to find out if the Explorist 600 had been shipped. They said it would be shipped within 1 week and when my husband asked by what mode of transport, they indicated UPS. When he asked them to provide the tracking number he was told to call back in a couple of days for it. He calls back a couple of days later and again after a series of holds was told the Explorist 600 was being shipped out and that he should have it in a few days…..again he’s instructed to call back for the tracking number. He calls back days later, again a series of holds, and is told the computer system is down and he will have to call back the next day. He calls back, again a series of holds. The “customer service” rep promises that this time it will be shipped and that he will even send an e-mail providing the tracking number within 24-48 hours. You guessed it….no tracking number. My husband calls every week and is “promised” that it will be sent (this time) and he will receive it in 3-5 days. This has been going on for over two months now and still no replacement model. My husband is determined to get Magellan to stand behind their product, but I think it is an exercise in futility and that he will never get the replacement model he was “promised”.
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Posted by gps_units on
September 25, 2009
This 4700 is my 4th Magellan. The first was a 750 which was the same as the Hertz ‘Never Lost’. Worked great but when the 860T hit the market I had to have it. One year ago I bought a 3250 for another car, a little “funky” but it gets me where I need to go.
Last week my old reliable 860 was unfortunately stolen from my car. So since I have had good luck with Magellan I started to look for a new GPS. First I purchased a RoadMate 1340 which looked good in the box but had a display that was unreadable in daylight; any daylight. Returned the 1340 and then purchased a Maestro 4700… then the fun began.
Positives: Nice display… AAA Tour Book… Clear and loud voice… mostly (not always accurate)… Ability to do multi-location routing… Basic voice commands… Bluetooth & Traffic neither of which I have used.
NEGATIVES: Constant RESTARTS: When certain locations are requested. The display reads “YOUR DEVICE NEEDS TO BE RESTARTED TO INCREASE PERFORMANCE, PLEASE WAIT WHILE YOUR DATA IS SAVED. And then the unit turns off and restarts. I have spoken with Magellan support several times in the past week and, at first, they claimed that they have had no problems before. Today they said that I should return the unit for repair. For example: I live in Connecticut and often drive to Florida, when I put in ANY address in Florida the unit restarts. This is also true for many cities in Georgia and South Carolina. If you need to go to Mobile, Alabama however no problem.
The in-putting of locations is done by Town or City not by State; so if you want to go to San Francisco and type that in you get to choose from every town in Mexico that has San Francisco in the name.
For the most part it works locally BUT, from Connecticut, you CAN NOT go to ANY city or town in Florida, as well as many cities in Georgia and South Carolina. The same error message: YOUR DEVICE NEEDS etc. appears and you can’t navigate to your destination! Therefore this GPS is useless for me the way it works today.
In time I believe that Magellan will get the 4700 ‘right’, at least I hope so. When and if Magellan fixes this fatal problem I will change my rating to 5 stars, until then I will not go South of the Mason Dixon Line.Magellan Maestro 4700 4.7-Inch Widescreen Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator
HOPEFULLY THINGS WILL GET BETTER Added August 16, 2009
And now for some history:
The checkered history of the Magellan corporation, as we know it today, may have contributed to some of the issues that have been illuminated in this and other forums. Since my first experience with Magellan labeled products was positive, I tried to stay with a known entity. In the early 1980’s I bought a Magellan Loran C for marine use. It ALWAYS worked providing me with accurate TD’s and, with the Loran C overprinted charts got me to my waypoints and destinations. BTW Loran was developed by the Military as Loran A during WW II.
While GPS was not developed until the late 1970’s and early 1980’s it was not available for commercial use until the mid 1980’s. All through this period Magellan, or as it was previously known as Navistar, was in the forefront of navigation product development. Later, a number of Silicon Valley companies were involved with or owned Magellan. In 2001 Thales, a French based Fortune 500 communications and defense company acquired Magellan and tried/did change Magellan’s name to Thales Navigation; not a household name.
Five years later, in 2006, Thales sold Thales Navigation to an Investment group named Shah Capital Partners which changed the name back to Magellan. Recently, in January of this year, Magellan was acquired by MiTAC, a Taiwan based company that is, along with other products, in the GPS business. MiTAC owns Mio and NAVMAN and now Magellan. To me, it looks like MiTAC is committed to the GPS marketplace.
From the foregoing, one might see that while Magellan had some less than satisfying marriages in recent times, its beginnings were superb.
Now we have an industry (popular priced GPS devices) that brings out new products every few months just to keep up with the competition. Often these products are released; “not ready for prime time”. Virtually all of the companies in this arena (Magellan included), have to recall or upgrade or `ship’ updated firmware or hardware. Even the industry leader (by units shipped) Garmin/Nuvi have had their share of problems. What is critical to the success of these companies, in my opinion, is the manner in which Customer Service is addressed. Starting with the contracted, offshore-based telephone and e-mail support, without an escalation plan to the refusal to acknowledge that a problem is not a one off.
I, for one, am encouraged that Magellan is now owned by MiTAC. I like my new Maestro 4700, warts and all, and in time hope to love it when it works as well as my stolen 860t did. For now I will do `workarounds’.
That’s my opinion, I could be wrong.
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Posted by gps_units on
September 23, 2009
Prima is a good company and this is a good case, though it’s not quite perfect. While the fit is quite exact, I find it’s not quite as snug as I would like, which makes it pretty easy for dust and debris to get into the case. For example, the edges can flip up as I’m stowing my touch in my pocket, letting crud get trapped between the case and the iPod, which can’t be good for the finish.
I also found that while the silicone texture provides excellent grip, that same grip creates a lot of friction when trying to slip my iPod into a pocket or tight space. So your precious iPod will be less likely to slip from your fingers, but it’s also harder to access, which I think is not a good trade-off because the iPod touch can’t really be operated without holding and seeing it (i.e., you can’t easily change the volume or skip a track while it’s in your pocket), so I’m always putting it away and retrieving it.
In the end I opted for a clear hard case from another maker.
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The Top Smart Phones - How to Decide Which One to Get?
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Posted by gps_units on
September 22, 2009
Compre este gadget recientemente y me ha dado ciertas dificultades poder georeferenciar las fotos. El gps es poco sensible y tarda mas de lo esperado en conectarse con los satelites aun en lugares abiertos. Viene con limitadas instrucciones para poder hacer lo que vemos en la propaganda, falta mejorar los manuales y esperararia que SONY lo haga en linea. Puede ser practico para quienes deseen posicionar geograficamente sus fotos, de lo contrario UD desperdiciaria su dinero, hoy tan escazo. Para poder usarlo se lo di a uno de mis alumnos con tiempo para jugar con el y luego de 3 dias de probarlo pudo linkiar adecuadamente las fotos.
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Posted by gps_units on
September 21, 2009
I purchased a factory refurbished Garmin Nuvi 350 in July 2009. This was my first time owning, but not using, a GPS. I received the product fairly quickly and in great shape, no scratches or screen problems. It came with a GPS to computer cable, a dashboard and windshield mount, a car charger, a carrying case, and a small pamphlet of information (the manual is on the GPS memory/or online). It also came with the North American 2009 maps. I tested out connecting to my computer and even adding mp3 files, all good so far. However, when I used it on a test drive it lost its signal on a long, open stretch of road and need to be turned off and reset. It also was difficult to hear when using with the windows down, but that is sort of expected.
Pros:
Good screen brightness.
Included all accessories and new maps.
Mounts easily and effectively.
Announces the Street names before turning.
Good Battery life.
Cons:
Sometimes loses signal and needs to be turned off, and or reset(hard to do while driving).
Low volume if driving with windows down.
ABC, not QWERTY on screen keyboard.
Have to press Warning agree button every time turned on.
Released in 2005.
Neither:
From pressing the On button until Maps are loaded it takes about 30-40 seconds.
Flip up antenna.
Overall at this point it is only OK for me, I will need to test it out more to see if it loses it signal more times when I am driving (about 4 times so far), but that is the my biggest problem with it.
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Garmin 350 GPS
The Garmin nuvi 350 gps(global positioning system) is essential to anyone traveling in their car or boating on a lake. This unit provides routes and directions that you would never even think...
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